


Red across the snow

by Bitchoyote (Hildringer)



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Angst, Bane and Barsad are 20-25, But first, But they've been through so much already, Canon-Typical Violence, De-Aged Characters, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I will have romance!, M/M, Sassy Barsad (Dark Knight Rises), Terrorism, Underage - Freeform, Violence, hopefully, john is 16, will update tags as i progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 14:45:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16536617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hildringer/pseuds/Bitchoyote
Summary: Based off of this kink-meme prompt:AU where Ra’s al Ghul succeeded in Batman Begins and takes over Gotham with Bane as his second in command. John grows up in the war torn city with a group of orphans that try to keep each other safe while fighting with local gangs for resources. Let’s say one night a local gang goes after John and Bane intervenes. Bane’s men notice his attachment to John and start to follow/protect him from criminals in the city because while Ra’s is their leader Bane is the one they are truly loyal to…..Basically I want an AU where John is protected by Bane and his men from the terrors of a war torn city because Bane is in love with John :) I would love it if Barsad is Banes go to guy because he is awesome!!!!Link to the kink-meme promp repost here:https://tdkr-kink.livejournal.com/2798.html?thread=1167598#t1167598I'm sorry, I could not find the original post.





	Red across the snow

John is 16 when Ra’s Al Ghul murders the Bat and plunges Gotham into darkness.

He watches the cracked tv screen with the rest of the orphans at St. Swithins as Gotham’s new, self-proclaimed, overlord walks up to a podium set in front of City Hall and starts speaking. 

John watches as hellfire spills out of the monsters mouth and bites his lip until it bleeds to keep the tears from falling.

The batman is dead.

There’s a rushing sound in his ears that is drowning out all other noise in the room. 

He’s a little grateful he is unable to hear this un-rightful King’s speech but he can see the other boys tearing up and watches as Tommy’s little shoulders shake with sobs. 

Father O’reilly should really be in here turning off the TV and making them all go to bed, kids shouldn’t be watching this shit, but John knows the priest is drunk as a skunk in his office.

John doesn’t blame him.

Batman is dead. 

Long live the king. 

…

The first days are stressful, the power in the Narrows shuts off almost immediately after Al Ghul’s speech ends and the rest of the city follows soon after. 

John doesn’t know if this is all the work of Al Ghul or if the government thinks shutting off the power to the city will stop the siege from happening. He doubts plunging them into the dark will stop this shadow army from encroaching on Gotham.  
John sometimes wonders if Ras Al Ghul was born from darkness, like an actual demon, but then he scoffs and calls himself a ninny. 

He doesn’t have time to be scaring himself with fables and fairy tales, the kids are already hungry and they don’t have much food left. It’s only a matter of time before they run out completely. 

There are 9 boys housed at the orphanage currently, and only two of them are over the age of 12, John included. Sam just turned 15 and keeps offering to help John scout around the neighbourhood and John has managed so far to convince him that one of them needs to stay with the others, to protect them. He knew it was always a matter of time before Sam stopped listening.

He leaves before the Sun comes up one morning to beg at a nearby apartment building for scraps. Early on in the siege people were more generous and would give him loaves of bread or some canned goods to take back to the others kids but going into the third week no one bothers to even open their doors when he knocks. He knocks on every apartment door until finally someone opens up, the girl who stands on the other side must be as John himself is but her cheeks have sunken into her face and her eyes are ringed in purple. She looks like a ghost.

“Oh. Sorry.” Is all he manages to say, the shock of someone else being worse off than he is making him speechless. She nods and closes her door again. John stands there for a long time, his hands balled into fists and a lead weight in the pit of his stomach. Somehow, the guilt makes his hunger feel heavier.

He is eventually able to uproot himself from that spot and he starts to make his way toward the stairwell when a sharp whistle catches his attention. John turns and sees a man leaning casually against the open door to one of the apartments, just a few down from the girl.  
The man is in his mid to late 30’s, with a bit of scruff and gang tattoos on his arms, neck and face. He isn’t wearing a shirt and the light catches on the gold hoop through his left nipple. John swallows and feels that lead weight get heavier.  
“You hungry?” the man asks, his tongue sweeps out to wet his lips and his eyes flick up and down John’s body. “Cause I can help with that”

John’s eyes flick to the girls’ apartment and somehow he knows this guy is the reason she hasn’t been eating, his mouth pulls into a sharp line and he clenches his fists, heart beating fast.

“Is that what you told her?” John says, backing up slowly towards the stairwell, he doesn’t want to turn his back on the creep. The man never straightens up from his lazy slouch, his hands are in his pockets and his eyes are hooded but he smiles, all teeth, at John’s question.

“She’ll come around” he says as John reaches the door to the stairwell and hastily pushes it open, finally turning his back on the man and all but sprinting down 10 flights of stairs. The man’s laughter follows him down, like a hyena’s cackle, sharp and haunting.

John’s still shaken up when he makes his way back to St. Swithins, he kept to the alleyways and made extra sure to stay out of sight. He wouldn’t make himself easy prey to predators like the man in the apartment building. 

 

He reaches the yard without encountering anybody else and by this time the Sun has fully come up and the kids should be awake. He hadn’t meant to be gone so long and he had nothing to show for it. They wouldn’t be able to rely on the kindness of strangers anymore; John would have to get more creative. The man’s cackle shook through his skull again and John shivered. Only if he had to, he promised himself, only if he really had to.

As soon as he pushes the door open he can tell something has gone wrong, the orphanage is dead silent and sombre except for the muffled sounds of boys crying coming from the rec room and he runs to check on them.  
Todd and Colin, the two eldest next to John and Sam are sitting on the ground surrounded by small, thin bodies wracked with sobs. They’re both pale and Todd has a purple bruise forming across his right cheekbone. John’s heart almost stops when he realizes who is missing.

“Where’s Sam?” he asks, dreading the answer.  
“Soldiers took’em” Colin says quietly, staring at nothing. A tear tracks slowly down Todd’s cheek and he sniffles. “Todd tried to stop one of them but the other cold cocked him, then they dragged Sammy out” 

At this point John’s heart is beating out of his chest and he feels like a wreck. If he leaves the kids to go after Sammy more soldiers could come back and take more boys.  
“You guys need to hide so I can go after Sammy, I don’t want them taking more of you” John rasps, desperation thickening in his throat. He doesn’t know how long its been, Sammy could be dead by now or worse.  
Todd’s head snaps up and he brushes off the tears wetting his cheeks and his gaze goes cold and angry. “It’s not us they want” he grounds out “They came for O’Reilly, said men of god had to be taken to the courts for judgement. But O’Reilly cut a deal” Todd has stopped crying, replaced with the same cold fury John can feel clogging up his lungs and chest and making every breath feel like its burning him from the inside.

“Where?” is all he can manage to grind out and Colin points towards the office.  
“Lock him in, we’ll deal with him later” Todd and Colin both nod and stand up, some of the smaller boys have fallen asleep and the rest are clinging to each other more than to the older boys. John nods at the little ones “ Then take everyone downstairs and hole up in the cellar until I get back. Like a sleepover” he says this last bit to Tommy, who’s got tear tracks down his cheeks and eyes so wide they might pop out of his head.

John doesn’t have time to say more.

He doesn’t’ have a plan as he bursts out of the orphanage and takes off towards City Hall. He can’t know for sure that that’s where the soldiers will take Sam but it’s the only lead he has. He doesn’t have time to slink through alleyways and has to make his way through the streets, out in the open. He spots some gangbangers and keeps walking, doesn’t look their way even as they call out to him. They laugh when he passes by but make no move to stop him and he breathes a sigh of relief as he continues on his way.

John can hear loud voices and muffled gunshots as he approaches City Hall and his swallows the spit pooling in his mouth as he gets closer and closer to the sounds. He doesn’t know what he should expect but it sounds like trouble.  
He spots two men with guns turning a corner up ahead of him and stumbles down an alleyway hoping to avoid them. As they go by he hears snippets of their conversation.

“Bane won’t be happy”  
“He said no kids, only idiots would bring him a kid”  
“Not our neck he’s gonna snap when he finds out”  
“They better hope he doesn’t find out”

John’s heart pounds faster in his chest, he tries to stop himself from hoping but the feeling bubbles up regardless.  
“Please, God, please” he whispers and slips out of the alley towards where the two men had come from. 

He slows his pace and tries to seem confident about being there despite sticking out like a sore thumb in his oversized green hoodie and beat up sneakers. He walks out into a section of the city he thinks he might recognize but that has now been converted to some kind of training ring. 

There are men and women dressed in army-green fatigues, with guns strapped to their backs and knives to their thighs, all with the same cold expression on their faces despite how they seem to be milling about. 

Waiting for something. 

Well, John thinks, here goes nothing.

 

John turns a few heads as he advances, heart pounding so hard in his chest his vision looks a little grey at the edges. Don’t think about it, just be confident, look for Sammy, and act like you belong. His thoughts aren’t helping how he feels but he peeks around looking for Sam. He thinks he spots a tuft of curly black hair and a faded red hoodie but before he can make his way over, his shoulder is suddenly grabbed and he’s yanked around sharply. 

He hisses and grabs at the hand holding him fast, the pain intense and unrelenting but he manages to hold his tongue when he realizes who’s holding him.

The man is wiry and thin with a red scarf wrapped around his throat, he isn’t much taller than John or much older it would seem, maybe in his early 20s. His eyes are silver and so piercing John thinks if he looks away they’ll stab right through him.  
He’s so frightened it takes John a moment to realize the man has said something to him.

“Pardon?” John says, his voice high and squeaky with fear, he coughs and the man repeats himself.

John shakes his head, as the word is clearly in a language he doesn’t understand, it sounds familiar but he can’t place it.

“Lost?” the man repeats, his voice accented and not as deep as John would have expected.

“Um..Yeah” John replies lamely, “I got turned around” fucking dumb. They. Are. going. To. Kill. You! His mind screams back at him but John has already said it and can’t take it back. 

The man ponders this for several moments and his eyes never leave John’s and John is helpless to stare back, worried that if he looks away the guy will know he’s lying.

“You are a new noviciate? Yes?” the man says slowly, despite how calmly and surely he asks the question he still squeezes his hand hard on John’s shoulder to the point that tears well up in his eyes. 

“Yes” John grits out, nodding his head dumbly, no idea what he is agreeing to but just wanting to be away from this place and from this man. 

The grip on his shoulder lessens enough that he relaxes and then the hand lifts and claps down hard. John winces but stays upright. 

“Good, good” says the man, loudly while he glances around. 

John realizes suddenly that they have an audience, although no one seems to have moved, every pair of eyes in the area are on the two of them. Or more specifically, John, as he realizes that he is surrounded with people far more dangerous than he could possibly imagine. He’s starting to feel more and more like the little mouse that wandered into the lions’ den. 

The relief he felt when the man released his death grip on his shoulder comes back full force.

“The duckling must return to the training grounds” is said off to John’s left and a few people chuckle. John feels blood rush to his cheeks but it isn’t embarrassment, he doesn’t want to go to the training grounds. He needs to find Sam. 

Before he can protest though, the man with the red scarf turns him around suddenly and frog marches him through the throng of soldiers towards an area lined with tents. 

John tries to keep his head pointing straight ahead as he peeks surreptitiously around, hoping to catch a peek of that black hair from earlier. No such luck and pretty soon they are rounding the wall of tents and entering into an open area where John can see young men and women in plain clothes like himself lined up in the middle of a circular ring. 

The ring is lined with a makeshift fence of wood and rope and John peeks up at the group of people in the middle. No one looks happy to be there.

He’s about to flick his eyes back around to study the four armed guards standing at different points around the ring when a flash of black curls and a red hoodie catches his eye and he can’t look away. 

Sammy’s brown eyes catch his own and John’s heart starts thudding again. He can see Sam open his mouth, about to say something, but John shakes his head minutely, eyes wide and mouth curling up with fear. 

Sam’s mouth clicks shut and he looks back down, trying to cover up his mistake when it’s already too late. The man holding John by the back of the neck is looking at him now, he then looks at Sam and back at John. John just stares straight ahead, pretending not to notice.

The relief of finding Sam alive is short-lived when John realizes they are standing in an open area, surrounded by people and armed guards and there are even more soldiers beyond that. He’s found Sammy but there’s no way out, they’re trapped.

He’s going to think you have a plan His mind whispers to him. You’re both already dead.

Unhelpful, he tells himself.

John keeps his eyes peeled as he is led past the guards and towards the group. He hoped the man would stand him closer to Sam who is in the back row but he is taken to the front and told to stay. He won’t move his head to look back but he can feel eyes boring into him, not just Sam, the other people want to know why he’s there but John doesn’t even know why they are. 

The gears in his head start turning over everything he’s learned so far. The soldiers took Sam instead of the priest for what reason? John assumed he was going to be taken to whatever “court” the men were talking about but then they had brought him to these training grounds. Training for what? John considered perhaps more soldiers and they were taking young people to force them into Al Ghul’s army. He felt sick, he and Sammy could never become like these monsters but what would he have to do to secure their freedom?

Before John could get too deep into his thoughts, he noticed a hush descend on the grounds. Impressive considering no one had been speaking before. A shiver ran down his spine regardless as he felt eyes on him and he looked up and spotted what had the person next to him trembling in fear.

A man was approaching. 

Although John could not recall ever seeing a man this big in person, he was massive in all things, standing at least a head taller than the soldiers who stood at attention when he passed and filling out a giant leather shag coat that looked big enough to cover all the orphans in St. Swithins at the same time.

But his heavy looking boots made no sound as he walked towards the group of youths. His hands gripped the lapels of his coat and John could see his chest was bare except for some kind of leather brace wrapped around his belly. He was ripped and covered in scars from what John could see, silent as the grave and wearing a metal mask shaped like an animal’s snarling maw.

John felt his hands clam up and stood a little straighter. This was it.

Here was the lion.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this kink-meme prompt:  
> https://tdkr-kink.livejournal.com/2798.html?thread=1167598#t1167598
> 
> I could not contact the person who posted it but it's been 6 years so I hope they see it and are happy. 
> 
> Possible Spoilers + Warnings:
> 
> John is underage but I will not be writing sex scenes between the two of them. I may have them kiss or involve some light frottage at some point but nothing major, hence why I added the underage tags.  
> It's also my personal head-canon that Bane was most likely raped in prison and is very careful to never become like the monsters who hurt him, in anyway. (This does not mean that I am for or against underage in fics, I just think Bane would hold himself to a very strict code of ethics because of his past, as flawed as his beliefs are).
> 
> If you have some insight into this or want to know more feel free to send me a message :)
> 
> And thank you for reading!


End file.
